The fossils of a small prickly dinosaur discovered in South America may represent an entire line of armored dinosaurs.
The Jakapilkaniukura is a primitive relative of dinosaurs that lived between 97 million and 94 million years ago.
Paleontologists reported in a new study that armored dinosaurs lived in the Southern Hemisphere but had gone undetected until now.
J.kaniukura was about the size of a house cat and had a row of protective spines running from its neck to its tail. It had leaf-shaped teeth like those of Stegosaurus.
The massive bulldog-faced dinosaur was very large.
A partial skeleton of a subadult J.kaniukura was found in the Ro Negro province.
A short beak is what the dinosaur likely had. The researchers said it would have been able to eat tough vegetation.
Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and other armor-backed dinosaurs are part of the group.
Fossils from the earliest members of the group are found mostly in rocks from North America and Europe during the time of the dinosaurs.
The University of Pa and Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation collaborated on the discovery of J.kaniukura.
They said it was surprising that the ancient line of thyreophorans lived all the way into South America.
The older types of tyrannosaurus rex seem to have gone extinct in the northern hemisphere.
They are thought to have survived well into the Cretaceous. THereophorans lived longer. The dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago.
The name "Jakapil" is derived from a word that means a shield bearer in the north of Argentina. The Indigenous Mapudungun language has two words for a stone and acrest.
Thanks to a computer simulation, you can see what J.kaniukura would have looked like.
• Jakapil kaniukura • here is the first thyreophoran from Argentinian Patagonia
Such an honour work with Sebastian Apesteguia, Facundo Riguetti and Mauricio Álvarez to achieve this reconstruction.#blender #blendercommunity #paleoart #paleontology #Jakapil #Argentina pic.twitter.com/Hf4ZphlWsH
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